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Show Felines may require tattoo Cat licensing ordinance opposed By CHERIE HUBER FARMINGTON Eleven women and one man from across the county showed up to the monthly meeting of COG to express their opposition to a new animal control ordinance that was being presented to the COG by Glen Taylor, director of Animal Control for Davis County. The new ordinance would restrict res-trict the number of cats allowed at any given residence to five without meeting the requirements of a cattery. cat-tery. Each cat would have to be licensed and wear a collar or be tattooed for identification. In addi- tion if the cats are to be allowed outside, they would also be required re-quired to be surgically sterilized. The number five was determined to be reasonable, Mr. Taylor said, because be-cause an average litter is four and that would allow for a mother and a litter. A grandfather clause has been provided to allow cat owners with more than the legally allowed number at the time the ordinance is enacted to maintain those cats for the duration of the animal's life, providing the cats are registered within 120 days. The women, who are all members mem-bers of a local animal welfare group, Help Save the Animals, presented pre-sented a statement of their concerns con-cerns to the mayor of their town. The statement read: "The version of the new ordinance ordi-nance that we have had access to is poorly written, incomplete and ineffective. in-effective. There are numerous animal organizations in the area who could have offered valuable input if they had been asked. "We have consulted with National Na-tional Animal Control on this ordinance ordi-nance and they agree that the ordinance ordi-nance needs a lot of work. As interested in-terested citizens we believe we have a lot to offer and would be willing to work on an ordinance that would be practical. As written, we don't believe the ordinance will meet any of its stated goals. We wholeheartedly back an ordinance dealing with vicious animals. Perhaps in a county where only 25 percent of the dogs are licensed we should turn our efforts to enforcing ordinances already in effect. "We urge that a carefully worded vicious dog ordinance be adopted for Davis County. We feel one is very much needed. However we would like to see dog and cat ordinances dealt with separately and with input from local animal groups and other citizens who would be affected including the farmers far-mers of the county." Each city should now have a copy of the proposed ordinance which should be available for citizen inspection. Rex Bouchard, Mayor of south Weber said he felt that there would be a problem with enforcement. Com. Harold Tippetts said that better animal control was not going anywhere without public education. educa-tion. Glen Taylor said that he ran a survey of all the cities in Davis County of which six cities replied. He said that 50 percent of those cities indicated some representatives representa-tives to an animal ordinance. Nationwide, Mr. Taylor said, only 30 percent of the cats receive proper vet care. At this point rabies in cats exceed that in dogs. Rabies in dogs went to zero, he said, when dogs were licensed. In Davis County Coun-ty at the present time about 25 percent per-cent of the dogs are licensed. He also pointed out that 90 percent per-cent of the cats that are destroyed at the shelter are turned in by their owners. Com. Saunders said that there is a question of the enforceability of the ordinance as the county and each city would have to adopt the same ordinance for it to be effective. effec-tive. Fred Englebrecht of Bountiful who attended the meeting said he was concerned that Mr. Taylor stressed the expense of animal control con-trol but that there was no mention of the number of animals sold from the Davis County Animal Control to research and where those funds were going. Lynn Bradak of Help Save The Animals said that the 300-member group would also contact each city to express the group's concern and reservation about the ordinance as written and to offer the group's research re-search resources. |